Fall Family Photos

We finally got some new family photos taken. In my mind I wanted lots of colorful leaves to be part of our photo shoot but... we live in Michigan. Apparently the leaves didn't get the memo on the proper timing but I still love how they turned out. The girls were a little slow to warm up to the photographer but eventually got on board after making me sing "If you're happy and you know it..."

Lunch

I just can't figure out why lunch takes SOOO long to accomplish. hmmmm... :)

Over the past couple of weeks our work crew has been busy creating a nursery.

The girls thought they were getting away with something big when they started "painting" the walls. haha. I'm sure Craig thought they were a great help. He has been so great - painting the room and building/moving furniture to 100 different places in one small room.

The girls also helped me sew some new curtains...

 



This is currently our favorite room in the house. The girls like to snuggle in "fia's" room and take out all the baby toys and try to climb into the crib. Almost every night they drag their blankets and stuffed animals in, pick out a book and get cozy. I'm not complaining, I'll take some cozy snuggle time from my girls wherever I can get it :)

Gender Reveal Baby Shower

I was reminded this weekend how fabulous the women in my life are. My friend Danielle and my mom threw us a fantastic gender reveal baby shower.

The shower was a cute "bee" themed event.



Danielle made an adorable diaper cake with lots of great material for future sewing projects. She also smartly asked everyone to wrap their presents in fabric rather than paper. Fantastic idea!

The candy table... a well visited/favorite location for my children. :)

Look at this adorable big sister! There is a cute little bee on her shirt along with a black and yellow tutu. The girls were both a little concerned with the "bug" on their shirts (and everything else) and kept telling me "bug... yuuuuck" haha I think I may need to be nicer to the creepy crawlers?

We ate lots of great food... a lot of it admittedly covered in chocolate. mmmm....

Then we broke out the special cupcakes. How adorable are these? I hate to admit that I did not make them.

It's a girl! As everyone cut into their cupcakes our secret was revealed. We will be adding another little girl to our family. Her name is Sofia Grace and we are so excited to meet her in a couple of months. Yes... Craig is outnumbered but don't feel too badly for him. His girls love him very much and who wouldn't want one more beautiful woman added to their family??



We decorated onesies and bibs and they turned out fantastic!  

We are doing great. Large... but great, haha. I'm still restricted to the Grand Rapids area but all is well. Everyday I feel a little less nervous and a little more excited. Thank you, thank you and thank you again to all of our friends and family that are always so supportive and wonderful. We love you and know how blessed we are to have you in our lives.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween everyone... I think I may be a little late? whooops. Well on that note, most of you probably already know I'm not a hug fan of Halloween. I don't dislike it, it's just not a holiday I get very excited about. So when people started asking what the girls were going to be for Halloween I generally replied "I don't think they're dressing up this yr..." which resulted in pitying looks given to the girls. Poor, deprived little ones... if only your mommy loved you.

When Halloween came around we decided we would give trick or treating a try but I didn't feel like expending a lot of energy/money for what would probably be a 30 minute experience. Soooo... I fished out these little tutus I made for the girls for Valentines day a while back...

Throw in a sparkly crown from the playroom and there you go you've got a couple of princesses!

When I put Georgia's skirt on she looked up at me and said "momma I pretty!" haha. yes, honey you are - but you're still going to have to decide between law school and med school someday... or possibly rocket scientist school?

As predicted we only made it to 6 houses before the girls lost interest. They were much more into all the animals that came to the door. Our neighbors were handing them candy as Madelyn was reaching into their houses to pet the animals. haha.

It was a gorgeous night and the girls had fun sitting outside and handing out candy. If you're looking for candy come see Madelyn - she gives it out by the handfuls. Craig was telling kids to come get some candy and Maddy would reach in and grab a handful and say "get some" and dump it in their buckets.

We ate too much candy, had some pizza and stayed up late snuggling and watching a movie. I'm still not going to say I'm a huge Halloween fan buuuut we did have a good time.

Mine!

I saw this list on another website... these are the rules we are currently living by:

1. If I like it, it's mine.
2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.
3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.
4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
5. If it's mine it must NEVER appear to be yours at any time.
6. If I'm doing or building something ALL of the pieces are mine.
7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.
8. If I saw it first it's mine.
9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
10. If it's broken, it's yours.

http://www.rookiemoms.com/toddlers-rules/

The girls are driving me crazy fighting over books and toys. They are both equally brutal... pushing, hitting and hair pulling. LOTS of hair pulling.


Aaaaaaw don't they look so cute posing for pictures with Grandpa? Don't be fooled...

First Mani Pedi

Tonight the girls got a little glamorous with some bright pink nail polish. I was so impressed with how nicely they sat.

The girls walked around with their hands out examining their new shiny nails and looking so pleased with themselves for the next hour or so.

Goodbye Ducks

For months... ok really over a yr. Madelyn and this duck blanket have been inseparable. Once upon a time it was a cute little blanket with a duck head and arms.. or wings I guess. Now it's a much sadder and smellier version of that with practically no beak. It's really my fault. We took away pacifiers at about 10 months and gave the girls these replacement friends. Since then these duck blankets (or more fondly referred to as "du") have gone everywhere with us... no really, EVERYWHERE! They have been nearly lost on multiple occasions (causing multiple near heart attacks for me) and to be honest they are disgusting and embarrassing.



Madelyn picked 2 corners early on and chews/sucks on them. No matter what I do those corners smell like... well eeeeww.

Georgia isn't completely innocent, just not as gross. She chose to carry hers with her while she sucks on her thumb.

Last week something snapped and after being asked for the 100th time that hour "du... du?" I decided I was done looking at and hunting for duck blankets. Ducks are now only bedtime friends and are not allowed out of bed. It has gone soooo much better than I thought. No tears or fights they give me a funny look in the morning and try to sneak their ducks out.

As an added bonus when the girls have a meltdown and need some duck love they go climb in their beds to calm down.

Fall Love

I absolutely love fall. I am a little ashamed to admit that in August while we were enjoying the pool and sunshine I was pining for some warm apple cider and golden colored leaves. That said, we have been to the apple orchard twice. The first time it was a gorgeous day, but.... I forgot the camera. The girls had a blast picking apples. They even chose to eat an apple on the way home over a fresh doughnut.

The 2nd time we went the weather was gorgeous all morning. Nap time came and went and voila it was rainy and grey. Ugh. I did manage to snap a picture of the girls visiting with a baby cow.

try to ignore the fact that Craig is in a t-shirt. It was cold, he is odd.

Ok, so it was not a real cow. Georgia wanted the cow to make a clickety clack horsie sound but this cow was not up to that. Giddy up girls! 

We are not done with fall and I promise to be better with the camera (that currently has a dead battery) from now on.

Fort Douglass

It has been rainy and grey and just kinda yuck outside lately. Over the weekend we were getting a little stir crazy (ok I was getting a little crazy with little people hanging from me while I made dinner) so Craig did what any good dad would do on a rainy afternoon to entertain his children... he made a fort with the girls.

Georgia was a fan of the fort.

Charlie was a fan of the fort...

Madelyn was not really a fan of the fort.

The girls ate some snacks and read books in the fort. Then  the leftover fort proved to be a good location for climbing and reading for the rest of the day... and sadly the next couple of days until I packed it away. oops.

Big Shoes...

Oh man, these girls crack me up. Over the weekend they wanted to go play so I told them to put some shoes on so we could go outside. I think I need to be more specific because this is what they ended up with:

On a funny side not, before some of you can say it... yes my feet ARE actually bigger than the girls' feet. For now anyway. :)